35 Best Biceps In History

Arnold Schwarzenegger

“When I was 15-years-old, I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need twenty-inch arms to match the rest of me.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Joel Stubbs

"If you wanted to pick one biceps exercise no bodybuilder can do without, I’d say it’s the standing barbell curl. It’s all about increasing weight with proper form and technique, and the barbell curl is the best way to do that. It allows you to move more weight, so do your best to master this move with strict form. Of course, if you have wrist issues, the EZ-bar curl is a perfectly acceptable substitute." - Joel Stubbs

Albert Beckles

"I like to place special emphasis on the peak contraction of curls. I often resist supinating until I get very close to contraction. Then I twist my wrists outward as far as they can go just as I reach the top of the curl. This creates a tremendous contraction, and I hold it for a second or two." - Albert Beckles

Robbie Robinson

"To up the intensity, I'll do my concentration curls with a barbell, taking a close grip and leaning over so my torso is parallel to the floor. I will slowly curl the barbell upward, feeling resistance along each millimeter of the range of motion. At the top of the movement, I'll hold the weight for several seconds, flexing and cramping my biceps. It's hard and painful work, but it builds density." - Robby Robinson

Larry Scott

"I would probably use about 4 different exercises for the biceps and 5 to 6 sets for each exercise of 8 to 10 repetitions. This would make a total of 24 sets for the biceps. If I were working the Biceps, Triceps, and Deltoids today. I would have 4 exercises for each and say 5 sets of each exercise or a total of 60 sets for my workout today. This type of workout takes me about 2 hours. I do not rest too much between exercises or between sets but try to keep moving along pretty well." - Larry Scott

Mike Matarazzo

"I idolized all of the bodybuilders who came from that old-school hardcore era. Those guys didn't need any fancy equipment; they trained with intensity and focus, regardless of the gym or other limitations. These guys could do presses with pails full of cement and still get a great workout." - Mike Matarazzo

Phil Heath

"Personally, I like one hand preacher curls with dumbbells. You don’t have to do 100 pound dumbbells to get a burn. Heck I can do 35- 45 dumbbells and get something out of it. It’s also great for guys that travel. It’s the one piece of equipment that most hotels always have." - Phil Heath

Freddy Ortiz

"I don't count the repetitions. I just keep going until the body part gets tired." - Freddy Ortiz

Lee Priest

"I had a guy come up to me once in the gym when I'm training arms and tell me that I should do curls this way. I looked at his arms and they were about fifteen inches. That would be like me walking up to Tom Platz and telling him how to squat!" - Lee Priest

Paul Demayo

Leroy Colbert

"I Leroy Colbert was the first man to build 21 inch muscular arms, drug free and I am proud of it."- Leroy Colbert

Jay Cutler

“I’ve always been a volume trainer." - Jay Cutler

Kevin Levrone

"For the preacher curls, this exercise is done with an EZ Curl bar, you can either do a close grip or wide.  If you don’t have an EZ Curl bar, use a small straight bar." - Kevin Levrone

Dexter Jackson

"I find that posing improves the shape and hardness of my arms. Before a contest, all the posing practice I do improves my arms day by day. Try flexing your arms after each set to push more blood into your muscles." - Dexter Jackson

Manfred Hoerbel

"You cannot plan on having something incredibly big because you never know how your genetics will work. So, when I started first I had no idea how far I could go in the sport at all. And that I had such big arms in our sport was actually a disadvantage. So, I never planned to have them that big, however I sooner or later realized that having the biggest arms in the world is a great marketing tool." - Manfred Hoerbel

Sergio Oliva

"You see in the magazines this guy has got a 21 (inch arm), this guy has got a 22 and this one has a 19-and-a-half. When they went to Florida, and everyone went to Florida, the only one who came close to me was Arnold and his was only 19. My arms were so big that they were bigger than my head. I was the only one, cold." - Sergio Oliva

Vince Taylor

"Most people try to say I use high repetitions. That is not true. I need a weight that will allow me to feel the contraction of the muscle. As corny as it may sound, I need to feel the muscle working." - Vince Taylor

Kal Szkalak

"The mind-to-muscle connection is the key to great arms. More than any other bodypart, you can easily watch your biceps moving with each rep, and with a simple hinge joint, you can focus on getting a maximum stretch and contraction. Make the reps harder, not easier." - Kal Szkalak

Flex Wheeler

"The biceps are relatively small muscles, and it shouldn't take much work to exhaust them if you're training them hard. I do no more than 10 sets once per week, but if I push every set to failure, that's the perfect amount to keep my arms consistently growing without overtraining." - Flex Wheeler

Bill Pearl

"If I wanted to get my arms as big as I could possibly get them, I would probably do around 20 sets of 4 exercises and 5 sets each for the triceps and 20 sets for the biceps per workout 3 times a week. That would be around 60 sets of triceps and 60 sets of biceps work per week. I would keep the reps between 6 and 8 and I would do all basic movements where I'd handle as heavy a weight as possible. I'd consume nutritious food that had calories in and just flat out eat!" - Bill Pearl

Bertil Fox

"Anyone who neglects brachialis development automatically limits the height and ultimate mass of his biceps, because a well-developed brachialis will push the biceps upward and away from the humerus and give the biceps more apparent height and mass." - Bertil Fox

Mike Christian

"Remember, 4 sets, 8-10 reps, heavy and hard." - Mike Christian

Boyer Coe

"I remember reading a copy of Joe Weider's Muscle Builder magazine and seeing an article by Steve Reeves on biceps training. He wrote about doing dumbbell curls while sitting on an incline bench. That advice was good enough for me, so the first exercise I ever did for biceps was that incline dumbbell curl. As a matter of fact, it was the only biceps exercise I did for almost five years. All I did was eight to 10 sets of the good old incline curl, then I'd move on to triceps." - Boyer Coe

Brian Buchanon

"Let's be blunt and define the two qualities that a bodybuilder needs if he's to have any chance of reaching the very top. First, he must be born with outstanding physique genetics--a natural ability to respond to training and build muscle. Second, he must have the mental tenacity, the will, to harness and develop that physical potential." - Brian Buchanan

Dorian Yates

"I also think you have less separation if you are fuller. If you go to the gym and pump your arms up they are bigger because of the blood volume, the fullness. But the separation is not so defined." - Dorian Yates

Ronnie Coleman

"Well it was a long hard road, but I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed the challenge. The road to becoming Mr. Olympia is all in the mind. Everyone puts such emphasis on the physical aspect of bodybuilding but really those who are mentally strong will succeed." - Ronnie Coleman

Paul Dillett

"I like using a rope instead of a handle for triceps movements. The rope pushdown is more of an isolation movement than a mass builder, because you can twist your arms out away from your body at the bottom. You're
not able to go as heavy with a rope as with a handle, but you get the full muscle-shaping and separating benefits." - Paul Dillett

Lou Ferrigno

"I certainly don't agree with the bodybuilders who say you can get big forearms just by squeezing the dumbbell handles when doing curls. In a few cases this may be true, but those guys would build big forearms by merely eating eggs in the morning. Most bodybuilders, myself included, have to work very hard for any kind of meaningful forearm development." - Lou Ferrigno

Frank McGrath

"First, the only person you have anything to prove to is yourself. Second, you can watch life with your nose pressed up against the glass. Or you can swing the doors open and step inside." - Frank McGrath

Serge Nubret

"Genetics help to some degree, but the most important thing is the mind and the spirit. These two are even more powerful than physical characteristics that are passed on." - Serge Nubret

Reg Park

"As your bodybuilding aims become higher, obviously you have to work harder, until, believe it or not, you are performing from 20-30 sets of both biceps and triceps three workouts per week." - Reg Park

Shawn Ray

"Be sure to use different exercises with every workout. Always confuse the muscles in to new growth." - Shawn Ray

Dave Draper

"The bis and tris and thighs didn’t go home this hungry Saturday without drawing blood, either. The whole greedy lot got in on the act." - Dave Draper

Marcus Ruhl

"From reading bodybuilding magazines, I realized the folly of my initial workouts. That’s when I decided to devise my own program. Everything intensified. Weight and sets increased, and I went on a six-day program, training one bodypart a day, with Sundays off. This time, my goal in every workout was to get a great pump with heavy weight." - Marcus Ruhl

Nasser El Sonbaty

"I don't have a favorite body part nor do I have a favorite exercise. Everyone who is honest prefers machines over free-weights, because machines are more convenient and cause less muscle pain and require less concentration and are generally less dangerous. BUT, if you like to have real gains you have to train hard and heavy, and you have to chose always the LEAST favorite exercises which actually give you the best possible results. So go for the least favorite exercises, the free weights... and go for the muscle pain!" - Nasser El Sonbaty

Marko Savolainen

"What I would like to bring from the ‘90s bodybuilding to this day is the hardness of the muscles that guys back then had. The best example of this is Dorian Yates. These days guys are bigger but a little bit smoother or puffy looking, especially on some body parts like arms and shoulders. But I think there’s a reason for that." - Marko Savolainen